Roaming - SIM not registered on network

Dear MTN

2 weeks ago, a day before I left South Africa, I called the service center to activate roaming for both numbers in my contract. In the meantime, I spent 7h 45m on the phone (from overseas) talking to various "champions" and I am no closer to solving the problem that my SIM does not register on the network in Germany.

The service I received was anything from "this is impossible" to "it is your fault" to "the reference you are giving me cannot be found" to "your number does not work on MY system" to very friendly but useless to simply hanging up on me.

I followed all the instructions given to me. Phone the day before you leave and activate roaming. This worked but only for one of my numbers. Access to the MTN app or online access does not work without a registerd SIM. Neither can I do banking nor use various internet accounts. It all hinges on the roaming function.

I had my number for 10 years and it worked fine (most of the times) when I went abroad. This time, it seems like the service agent switched roaming off instead of on.

I am told that the current status is that my roaming is activated (but the SIM does not register on the network). One of the agents told me that she would re-boot the system and my phone should work within 5 min. But -nothing.

I don't know what to do anymore. If it was possible to fly to SA and re-activate the roaming, trust me, I would do it but international travel is still banned by SA.

From reading online, I know that many other people are in the same situation - most of them forgot to activate roaming before they left - in my case one of your 'champions' made a mistake. So I don't expect any reaction to this review, but if for a miricale someone takes on my case, I would be forever grateful.

The last reference I received was *** I was told that someone will contact me (or fix the issue) within 4 working days. The next call to MTN revealed that 25% of the issue have been resolved - well the number still does not work.

Best regards Tobias +27 (0)***